


The Touch of a Goddess

by EKlein1998



Category: BioShock
Genre: One-Shot, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 09:49:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10409427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EKlein1998/pseuds/EKlein1998
Summary: Jonathan Steinman was a talented surgeon, and one of Rapture's best and brightest. But as Rapture's Civil War broke out, Steinman's sanity began to erode. He became obsessed with beauty and perfection. He became a monster.





	

Steinman had sat behind his desk, holding the envelope in his hands. He had known what it contained; a job offer from Andrew Ryan. Jonathan had known of the man, of course. He had been surprised to find him waiting in his office after that day’s operation. Ryan had given a speech about free will, and the choices that are made and how they define us as people. He also mentioned a place Rapture, some form of underwater city that he claimed to be building. Steinman was intrigued, of course, but he wasn’t going to let Ryan know that. No, he’d allow the man to stew for a short while, before he responded. Of course, Steinman was going to take Ryan up on his offer. Ryan had stated that Jonathan was going to be one of Rapture’s best and brightest, and that fact alone convinced the surgeon that the move would be beneficial.  
  
Ryan had instructed Steinman not to inform anyone where he was headed so, as far as the surface world was concerned, Jonathan Steinman had simply vanished. That suited Jonathan just fine. As soon as Steinman arrived in Rapture, the man had known that this was where he was meant to be. The place wasn’t finished by then, it wouldn’t end up being completed for almost another 3 years. And yet, it still felt… Whole, to Steinman. Ryan had gifted him an entire medical wing, and a fully trained staff, for him to watch over and operate within. It was glorious.  
  
As time went on, Rapture grew. Developed. Thrived. Ryan and his cabal – Steinman, Sullivan, Tenenbaum, Cohen, Alexander, Lamb and Suchong – presided over the city as fair yet strict rulers; each contributing to the wealth of scientific and technological advances that were made within Rapture’s walls. Tenenbaum discovered the ADAM, Cohen echoed Ryan’s word through art, Suchong developed the Big Daddy programme, and so on. But as Rapture’s scientific discoveries grew more and more outlandish, the fall of the man-made utopia grew closer. The arrival of Frank Fontaine, and his band of smugglers – the parasites, as Ryan called them – infected Rapture, spreading dissent, disobedience and disarray.  
  
Ryan was strict and dealt with the uprisings harshly, resulting in the death of Fontaine, and the destruction of his operations. But little did Rapture’s elite know, that as Ryan crushed the resistance, more sprouted up through the cracks. This culminated with appearance of Atlas, who soon amassed an army. They were fearless. Raids on security and Big Daddies became commonplace, as pressure and tension escalated. Finally, in 1958, the pile of kindling that Rapture had become ignited into full scale civil war. Atlas and his allies attacked Rapture’s elite on New Year’s Eve, bombing the Kashmir Restaurant, and mounting larger attacks on Ryan’s forces. The violence was fuelled by the effects of splicing; the injection of plasmids that slowly began to eat away at the citizens’ minds. The fight became less focused on freedom, and more focused on the ADAM. Whoever had the ADAM, had the keys to controlling Rapture.  
  
The escalating warfare made sure that Steinman had a steady flow of patients into his operating theatre. But Steinman, too, began to feel the effects of his plasmid abuse. His psyche fragmented, and he became obsessed with the idea of beauty and perfection. His patients became less than human to the man; they were test subjects for his experiments in aesthetics. Within months, very few of Steinman’s patients ever got to leave his care again. The butchery thrilled him, his scalpel slicing at the fragile skin of his subjects. He never fell short of victims, willing or unwilling. Cohen’s closure of Fort Frolic allowed him to take his pick of the many trapped victims within the walls of Cohen’s home. But, no matter how many times he tried, he simply couldn’t please his goddess. His repeated failures destroyed any remaining piece of sanity that Jonathan had previously clung to, driving him even further to madness.  
  
During one operation, while Steinman worked on the face of the young woman on his table, he found himself conversing with her. The woman that he aspired to recreate. She had been nestled in the back of Steinman’s mind since before he even came to Rapture, an abstract and evasive concept that he just couldn’t focus on. The plasmids had changed that. The intoxicating substances had sharpened Steinman’s mind and focus, and with that she came to him. She was bright, glowing, ethereal. The true definition of beauty; the muse for every operation, for every alteration that Steinman made. Aphrodite, in the flesh. He asked her for guidance, following every instruction she gave him, despite the fact that she didn’t even exist.  
  
His nurse, Miss Chavez, had confronted Steinman afterwards, warning him that she would tell the authorities about his “horror shows and delusions”. Steinman had simply laughed, a deep and unsettling chuckle that persisted even while he punctured the nurse’s jugular with his scalpel. Her blood covered his face and his overalls, the warm and metallic liquid spurting from the open wound. He smiled with glee, his Aphrodite instructing him to get to work on Miss Chavez’s ‘asymmetry’. Despite hours of work, of blood, sweats and tears, she still turned out wrong. Steinman screamed in fury, slashing repeatedly at his deceased victim in a vain attempt to release his anger.  
  
Steinman’s obsession with his work blinded him to the fact that the streets of Rapture were no longer filled with screams or the loud crack of bullets through the air. A strange serenity had fallen over the place, a peace and quiet that was only broken by the repetitive loop of sounds from the public-address systems. Ryan had ended the war quickly, by taking away what he valued most: free will. Splicers roamed the halls, searching desperately for enough ADAM to feed their habits. Atlas and his remaining allies went into hiding, and Steinman continued his work.  
  
Nothing changed, until 1960. An airplane crashed above Rapture, and an intruder infiltrated the secret city. Steinman never got to complete his work. He was never able to please his goddess, despite his many attempts. After putting up a valiant fight, Steinman was finally put down by the intruder. The doctor was dead, and the screams of agony that previously filled his ward were finally silenced.


End file.
